Paranoid Android

Another week, another Paranoid Android Alpha teaser. And like the previous two before it, 4.5 Alpha 3 focuses on changes to the redesigned Recent Apps view. Aside from visual polish and performance improvements, the dev team is now allowing PA users to decide whether they want to use the new Material-inspired visuals or stick to the conventional KitKat style.

Paranoid Android's development has been interesting and fast-paced, but its list of officially supported devices hasn't been impressive, limited to a handful of Nexus devices. That changes today, however so slightly, as the popular custom ROM announces the induction of smartphones from OPPO and OnePlus into the fold.

Just a week after Paranoid Android revealed that it was already hard at work at the next major PA version, it has revealed the second alpha for the upcoming 4.5 release. The changelog for this pre-beta version isn't really that long and in fact focuses only on one thing: making the Recent Apps redesign smoother, prettier, and better.

If you thought that Paranoid Android would be taking a break after unleashing version 4.4 to its fans, then you have another thing coming. PA developers seem to have an itch they just can't get rid of and have announced two, yes, not one but two, releases. While 4.43 is practically a maintenance release, Paranoid Android 4.5 Alpha 1 contains a preview of the revamped Recents that the team teased before.

In all the fuss that surrounded Google I/O last week, it was easy to miss one important event in the Android custom ROM world. Paranoid Android has finally released final stable state of version 4.4 of the ROM, bringing not only the features teased and released before, but even a very up-to-date Android 4.4.4.

If an RC1, for Release Candidate, shocked you, then a Paranoid Android RC2 just a week later might make you faint. Although there isn't much new stuff included in this second release, the PA dev team has devoted a lot of work in squashing out some uglies and smoothening rough edges, hopefully with a final release in sight very soon now.

It was supposed to be just one of the cool features of Paranoid Android’s custom ROMs, but Peek is now actually doing well on its own after being released as a standalone app in May. Users will be glad to know that Peek 2.0 has just dropped at the Google Play Store on June 13, and makers of the app have promised a lot of requested features – including a number of fixes – in store for those who get the update.

Stop the presses! One of the more popular Android custom ROMs has just announced its first Release Candidate version. Paranoid Android 4.4, which brings along with it Android 4.4.3 now, has reached what its developers claim is an "almost stable state", giving hope of an actual stable release really soon now.

In one fell swoop, Paranoid Android has done two things. It has released the seventh beta of its 4.3 ROM version and it has set its foot down on the extent of features that will be included in its brand new Peek notification feature.

Hot on the heels of HTC's latest flagship receiving CyanogenMod 11 nightly builds, the HTC One M8 is now also getting Paranoid Android as well. While these builds are presented as official builds for Paranoid Android 4.x, it should still be considered as unstable versions for the purpose of testing.